Zach has confirmed he will be flying his quad at the field this Sunday 12-2. I will attend.Remember, Andy has listed the Ryerson students as my "children" so they are my responsibility. My wife knows and she is still (again) shaking her head.

Wow! It was sunny and cold when I got one minute away from the field. At Kennedy Road it became a white-out!!! There were 7 cars and 9 Ryerson people waiting for me. They had 3 quads with them. The large one used a 10,000 mah battery 6S. Essentially a brick with a red and black wire coming from it. The quad only drew 18 amps empty while flying but is capable of lifting a ton.

This year's competition:

The quad has to autonomously fly across a field and GPS identify anywhere between 10 and 40 targets and take photographs of them. Then it has to fly into a building through an open window and drop a listening device in the room and return to base.

For bonus points it has to do a second mission into the building and read instructions from a piece of paper on a desk with 16 point type size writing, halfway between these two examples.

Today the winds were very strong- approx. 30 kmh. The Canadian flag at the Storage complex (Simon's hangar) at Kennedy Road and Stouffville was pointing straight out and flapping vigerously. Trivia: it takes 19km/h winds to stretch out a Canadian flag. That is different from any other country's flag. The Canadian flag is a ratio of 1 to 2 (ratio of hoist to fly). All other flags are a ratio of 2 to 3 and straighten out in a lighter wind.

They had to film the flight. You will see a camera at the taxiway. They had to prove they met the flight milestone with their project.

Will post photos after dinner when I have access to my computer. Dinner's done!

Wow! It was sunny and cold when I got one minute away from the field. At Kennedy Road it became a white-out!!! There were 7 cars and 9 Ryerson people waiting for me. They had 3 quads with them. The large one used a 10,000 mah battery 6S. Essentially a brick with a red and black wire coming from it. The quad only drew 18 amps empty while flying but is capable of lifting a ton.

This year's competition:

The quad has to autonomously fly across a field and GPS identify anywhere between 10 and 40 targets and take photographs of them. Then it has to fly into a building through an open window and drop a listening device in the room and return to base.

For bonus points it has to do a second mission into the building and read instructions from a piece of paper on a desk with 16 point type size writing, halfway between these two examples.

Today the winds were very strong- approx. 30 kmh. The Canadian flag at the Storage complex (Simon's hangar) at Kennedy Road and Stouffville was pointing straight out and flapping vigerously. Trivia: it takes 19km/h winds to stretch out a Canadian flag. That is different from any other country's flag. The Canadian flag is a ratio of 1 to 2 (ratio of hoist to fly). All other flags are a ratio of 2 to 3 and straighten out in a lighter wind.

Checkout https://www.dji.com/mavic-air for $1350CAD This technology is absolutely insane. From what I understand it is because of cell phone technology that we are able to use these micro computers in our toys. There is more tech in my racing quad there there was in the lunar lander!

All these students need to do is buy one of these, attach a servo to drop off the package and hack the programming to do what they need. The camera is HD, it has collision avoidance, 21 min flight time, GPS, FPV, all in a tiny package that can fit in your coat pocket, just insane.The hardware is available at really good prices, just need to figure out the programming.

Checkout https://www.dji.com/mavic-air for $1350CAD This technology is absolutely insane. From what I understand it is because of cell phone technology that we are able to use these micro computers in our toys. There is more tech in my racing quad there there was in the lunar lander!

All these students need to do is buy one of these, attach a servo to drop off the package and hack the programming to do what they need. The camera is HD, it has collision avoidance, 21 min flight time, GPS, FPV, all in a tiny package that can fit in your coat pocket, just insane.The hardware is available at really good prices, just need to figure out the programming.

Stephan

In addition to the miniaturization pushed by the smart phone technology, I would add that the open source movement is another driving force in making that technology affordable to everyone.

You now can appreciate just how talented @Frank v B really is. In the face of even the most sophisticated technologies, Frank is always able to find away to get his planes to procreate in the back 40. Not even remedial classes from the Great @bweaver can stop him! Yes, Frank is truly an inspiration to us all!!